United Nations:
A United Nations Security Council vote on an effort to boost aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip has been postponed by a day as talks continue to try to avoid a third US veto over the two-month war between Israel and Hamas, diplomats said . Tuesday.
The 15-member council was initially expected to vote on a resolution – drafted by the United Arab Emirates – on Monday. But it has been repeatedly postponed as diplomats say the UAE and the US are struggling to agree on the wording of a cessation of hostilities and a proposal to set up UN aid monitoring.
Asked if they were close to an agreement, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters on Tuesday: “We're trying, we really are.”
The draft resolution would require Israel and Hamas to authorize and facilitate land, sea and air deliveries of aid to and through the Gaza Strip, and ask the United Nations to monitor humanitarian aid arriving in the Palestinian enclave.
Diplomats said the United States wants to strengthen language that “calls for the urgent suspension of hostilities to allow safe and unimpeded humanitarian access, and for urgent steps toward a lasting cessation of hostilities.”
The United States and Israel oppose a ceasefire because they believe it would only benefit Hamas. Washington instead supports pauses in fighting to protect civilians and allow the release of hostages taken by Hamas.
Washington traditionally protects its ally Israel against any action by the Security Council. The country had already vetoed Security Council action twice since a Hamas attack on October 7, which Israel said killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostage.
Israel has retaliated against Hamas by bombing Gaza from the air, imposing a siege and launching a ground offensive. Nearly 20,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to health officials in Gaza. UN officials are warning of a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza with the majority of the Palestinian coastal enclave's 2.3 million residents driven from their homes.
SUPERVISION OF THE AID
Diplomats said Washington is also dissatisfied with a proposal in the UAE draft resolution, which asks UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to set up a monitoring mechanism in Gaza “to exclusively oversee all humanitarian aid shipments to Gaza delivered through land, sea and air routes of those countries.” states that are not parties to the conflict.”
Limited supplies of humanitarian aid and fuel have entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing from Egypt, under Israeli control, but UN officials and aid workers say this does not come close to meeting the most basic needs of the residents of Gaza.
Nate Evans, spokesman for the US Mission to the UN, said on Tuesday: “We believe that a major increase in humanitarian assistance to Gaza is needed, as we have been trying to achieve on the ground through our diplomacy. We continue to work constructively. with council members about this product.”
On Sunday, the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom border crossing into Gaza was opened to aid trucks for the first time since the war broke out, officials said, in an effort to double the amount of food and medicine reaching Gaza.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Tuesday that on Sunday 102 aid trucks and four fuel tankers had entered Gaza via the Rafah and 79 trucks entered Gaza via Kerem Shalom.
“This is well below the daily average of 500 truckloads (including fuel and private sector goods) received each working day before October 7,” the report said in a statement.
Earlier this month, the 193-member UN General Assembly demanded a humanitarian ceasefire, with 153 states voting in favor of the decision vetoed by the United States in the Security Council days earlier.
A seven-day lull – during which Hamas released some hostages, released some Palestinians from Israeli prisons and increased aid to Gaza – ended on December 1.
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